Concert at McGraft Park

August 5, 2021 – MUSKEGON

It’s just me. Every time I go out for recreation lately, I feel like I’ve emerged from an underground bunker. “This seems weird,” I think to myself, digging deep to recall a pre-pandemic life.

The crowd tonight had a sense of elated cheer. The air was humid, the temperature was warm, the band was hot!

Players with horns. Singers with pipes. The Westside Soul Surfers. They’re certainly good enough to make it big. The passion is there. Must be that they all have a daytime job and doing alright? Did Mark Knopfler write a song about them?

Anyway, the Park was packed with plenty of comfortable elbow room. I already mentioned elated cheer. As I looked around, it all seemed more like 2019 than 2021. Except the cheer was a bit, well, more elated.

I’m sure it’s just me. A fish out of water. Now how does this camera thing work again?

Tap on a photo to make it bigger. Keep tapping to see the next.

  • Jon

The Compliments of the Season

The following essay originally appeared in CAMERA WORK, April 1905, written by J B Kerfoot.


Spring has come. Two robins have been reported near Philadelphia, the note of the bluebird is heard in the land, and pneumonia is in full bloom.

We must not, however, lose sight of the fact that there are two kinds of Spring, subjective and objective, the kind described in the advertisements and the variety actually furnished by the procession of the equinoxes.

by J B Kerfoot
Objectively, Spring is the time of year when Nature stretches herself, turns over in bed and mumbles drowsily, “Call me again in three weeks.” Subjectively, Spring is one of the hallucinations of the artistic temperament.

Objectively, Spring is the time of year when Nature stretches herself, turns over in bed and mumbles drowsily, “Call me again in three weeks.” Subjectively, Spring is one of the hallucinations of the artistic temperament.

The artist may be either a poet, or a painter, or a photographer. It makes no difference (even a photographer, you know, may have a temperament), and each in his own way has helped to spread the pleasant superstition.

Your poet always was an uncertain creature. When he sings most feelingly of feasts you may be sure that he has dined on beer and a rye sandwich; and as for that lovely lyric on the joys of curds and a cottage, the inspiration for it lay for ten years in bottle in the cellars of Rheims.

Poets, indeed, like dreams, go by contraries, so that you may put it down that the Ode to Spring was inspired by a particularly odious day in late January and that April found the author sneezing in damp boots and a raincoat and dreaming of the balminess of June. If for many years, while men still read poetry, it was the popular notion that the seasons had changed or that the particular climate under which it was one’s misfortune to have been born differed, vernally, from that of the Lake Country, we can easily place the blame and, since the Return to Nature, we know better.

Even Thomson, the poetic authority on seasons in general, had his moments of disillusionment. When he cried impatiently, “Come, Gentle Spring! Ethereal Mildness! come.” it must have been getting on toward the end of April.

“In the Spring,” says the poet, “the young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” You might know a poet said that. To begin with, with apartments at three thousand a year and the Beef Trust eking out a miserable two percent on porterhouse steaks, a young man, unless he is artistic and unpractical, does not at any season turn his thoughts lightly to love. It is too expensive. And then, in Spring, your well-balanced young man has other fish to fry. He is busy rubbering for his goloshes and wondering whether or not to wear his winter-overcoat when he leaves home mornings, and his thoughts are turned to the uses of sarsaparilla and the latest discoveries in cold cures.

And your painter is no less imaginative. Like the poet he is an impressionist — that is to say, he shows us the world not as it is but as he feels that the good God might have made it had he been educated in Paris. And to give him credit, he sometimes so persuades himself by his own preaching that, going out absent-mindedly to paint Spring pictures in March, he dies of a chill and thereby vastly enhances the value of his past output. And even the photographer (who, as we have seen, may also have a temperament) is sometimes known to print his bleak fall landscapes through the glass and to dream dreams.

Since then it appears that either Art is a Spring madness or that Spring is an Art madness, and since as wise men it behooves us to look facts in the face while as artists we must preserve our ideals, let us agree to worship Spring nine months in the year and the other three we can pass in what forgetfulness we may, taking stock, practicing philosophy and, withal, keeping our feet dry and our souls from mildew.

J. B. Kerfoot


The End of Desktop Wallpaper

An era spanning over two decades has concluded. The Picture Michigan website is no longer regularly publishing desktop wallpaper.

A number of factors contribute to this decision. Notably was whether offering additional wallpaper for mobile devices was a next step. This idea was visited annually. And ultimately tabled annually.

Occasionally, perhaps seasonally, we’ll put out there a wallpaper without the calendar. As always to be expected, it will depict the boundless beauty of Michigan. Of course, Picture Michigan!


Butterfly at Meijer Gardens
Wallpaper — Butterfly at Fredrick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park — April 2006

Sunset Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | December 2019

Lake Michigan Sunset
Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | Lake Michigan Sunset at Muskegon

Just another ubiquitous photo of the setting sun over Lake Michigan. And yet, we never tire of them.

– Jon

click on the image to open a full-size version and set to wallpaper background with right-click, which may involve saving image or downloading

Waterfalls Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | November 2019

Waterfalls Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | November 2019

Presque Isle River Waterfall
Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | Presque Isle River Unnamed Waterfall

This waterfall is very easy to find and access. Yet it remains unnamed. Along the Presque Isle River is a paved road, parking lots, and hiking trails leading to a handful of waterfalls in a spectacularly desolate wilderness area. The Porcupine Mountains area is a must-see destination if you find yourself in the Western Upper Peninsula.

– Jon

click on the image to open a full-size version and set to wallpaper background with right-click, which may involve saving image or downloading

Autumn Breeze Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | October 2019

Autumn Breeze Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | October 2019

Autumn Breeze
Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | Autumn Breeze

The rush of warmth and coolness all at once. Autumn in Michigan promises so much and never disappoints.

– Jon

click on the image to open a full-size version and set to wallpaper background with right-click, which may involve saving image or downloading

Quincy Smelter Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | September 2019

Quincy Smelter
Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | Quincy Copper Mine Smelter at Keweenaw National Historic Park

The former Quincy Copper Mine is tucked away in a very far corner of Michigan. From Detroit, this site is a longer drive than the drive to Washington DC, by 25 miles. And a mere mile away from this ghost-town setting, one can earn a PhD in archeology or computer science from MTU.

In the Keweenaw Peninsula sits the twin cities of Houghton and Hancock. This site in Hancock, as seen from Houghton, was once the smelting operation of the copper mine at the top of the hill. This photo is about 15 years old. Since then, the area has been added to the National Park system, cleaned up, and is accessible for tours.

– Jon

click on the image to open a full-size version and set to wallpaper background with right-click, which may involve saving image or downloading

Round Island Lighthouse Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | August 2019

Lake Michigan Beach
Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | Lake Michigan Beach

Two scenes this month is split between Lakes Michigan and Huron. At the top is a misty view of Lake Michigan south of Muskegon. Below is the Round Island Lighthouse made especially famous in the movie Somewhere in Time.

– Jon

Round Island Lighthouse
Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | Round Island Lighthouse

click on the image to open a full-size version and set to wallpaper background with right-click, which may involve saving image or downloading

Fishtown Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | July 2019

Fishtown
Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | Fishtown Leland

Typically, I gravitate toward the photo of fireworks for July calendar wallpaper. This year I am choosing this photo because of its gritty suggestion of the patriotic pioneer.  Fishtown is a small waterfront attraction of Leland.

Below is an alternate calendar, the setting sun over Lake Michigan at Duck Lake State Park.

– Jon

The Setting Sun over Lake Michigan
Picture Michigan Calendar Desktop Wallpaper | The Setting Sun over Lake Michigan

click on the image to open a full-size version and set to wallpaper background with right-click, which may involve saving image or downloading